Cinnamon Birthday Cake

I got a request for a mini cinnamon cake this weekend. Last time I made cinnamon cake, I paired it with a lovely Mexican chocolate filling and it was delicious, but this time I wanted to try something different with the cinnamon. So, since my hubby and I have been on a bit of a cinnamon roll kick, I decided 'what better to pair it with than brown sugar?'

It came out really well. The brown sugar buttercream was muted enough to let the cinnamon flavor in the cake really shine through, while still adding a subtle molassesy accent. 

I also used the Swiss-style buttercream to do the flower and the piping around the bottom, so it didn't have the body of the decorating icing I usually use, but I think it has a very organic vibe about it since I also chose not to overload it with color. 

View from the top

Digging in.

Cake Tasting!

It was a long time before I was able to have a chance to tell you about my first wedding cake tasting. :)

Kim, her fiance, mom and sisters came over to try a few different methods for boston cream pie.  Their other flavor is Chocolate with chocolate ganache and raspberries, but since they’d had it before, they just came over to help me determine the best way to make boston cream pie cake. :)

Once Upon a Time...

This was the first cake that I was able to do any “carving” with. As you can (hopefully) see, there’s an indentation at the “crease” and the edges of the book taper out to emulate actual book pages.

The biggest thing about this lesson was that I learned how to make roses. To this day, I probably enjoy making roses out of icing way more than I should.

Beetle

If I ever drive a VW Beetle, I may have to paint it yellow with pink dots. 

Butterfly

My mom and I signed up for a decorating class together towards the end of the Summer in 2009. This was the first cake we made. We may have gone a little overboard with the colors though - had to be the rebels and make our own designs. 

Little Sister's Birthday

My first fondant cake ever. The fondant is made of marshmallows and is delicious. Not so bad for a first try.